I am always drawn to the pity cases....regardless of the animal we are talking about...I just...feel so sorry for them and want to give them a chance. With Bettas, when I am looking at them in the store, it's like I would feel guilty bringing home one of the gorgeous, flashy, flaring, active ones when there is a half-dead one floating in another cup....

The down side to this is I never get to own the gorgeous, flashy, flaring, active one, LOL!

But I can't seem to figure out a way to justify purchasing a very robust healthy fish over one that is suffering and needs out of their cup NOW.

I like the way you think. i buy the ones who look like they need new accomadation. i wont buy a SICK one. because i have mostly shared tanks between fish in winter theres no small tank to heat for qt, and floating cup permently is not an option. i'll buy with fin damage cause that is easily fixed.

I feel bad for the betta that are sickly looking, but I prefer to buy ones that are healthy. I want a healthy fish, and if I buy a sickly one, it might not make it, then I wasted my money. I'll buy a fish with a small case of fin rot, because at early stages it's easily taken care of. But I'd rather buy a healthy active fish than one that could die right after I buy it.

yes i agree, and have almost bought sick almost dead just to give them a last meal but my bf would slaughter me if i bought home a sick fish. because its not guna make it and theres all the effort and medication a waste.

but if i know i can heal the fish and i can fit it i will. todays fish (see the thread in the new fish) was the ONLY fish without fin rot or fin damage and he was still stuck there :( now hes in a lovely heated tank besides a good lookin lady ;)

I tend to go for the sickly ones though only 3 of my 9 were sickly. My newest one Kiwi was dying as I held his cup(probaly won't of lasted the night) and he's now swimming around happily and everything. Even if I wasted all my money on him and he had passed away I wouldn't really count it as a lost because at least he would of knew what clean water felt like.

I only bought one who was very sickly, I prefer the healthy ones. When I look around I try to find traits I would like to focus on if I ever decided to breed them, even though there's a risk since I don't know what's hidden in their genetics.

It does break my heart when I see sick fish though :( at my petco they usually take pretty good care of their Bettas but the supplier often sends them in too young and some are starving when they arrive *cry*.

I haven't encountered any of the super sick, super sad bettas that some of you have seen. Even though the water is grimy sometimes and the fins are a little ragged, none of the ones I've seen have been on their last little fins so it's never been much of an issue. But if I did see one like that, I would break down and buy it if only so it could pass in clean water, like Bettawolf said. Bettas aren't very expensive and it's worth $5 to give a suffering betta a peaceful and dignified end. Otherwise, I look at their color first so I can get a variety. Even so, I've ended up with three red girls, although the third girl was a beautiful baby blue in the store. Now she's red! Why are they all red????

I probably would be more likely to buy the healthy ones. If you stop buying the sick ones and let them die at walmart maybe they will learn that neglected fish dont sell but with you all supporting these people it will never happen.